Whatever the reason, third seasons seem to be the times when action TV shows start deviating from their tried-and-true formulae. Xena: Warrior Princess put the popular Gabrielle through a storyline torture rack. Alias wiped out lead character Sydney Bristow's memory. La Femme Nikita turned its title character into a zombie and concocted a son for the primary male protagonist, Michael.
And Hercules: The Legendary Journeys resorted to one of the oldest gimmicks of all: romance. Fortunately, it worked.
The Show
At first glance, the third season seems about as run-of-the-mill as this show ever got. Hercules fights pirates! Hercules takes down bad rulers! Hercules rescues a princess! Iolaus has goofy adventures! Aphrodite makes trouble! And of course, Hercules battles the "evil minions of his wicked stepmother Hera, the all-powerful queen of the gods!" More often than not, season three fed viewers plenty of laid-back action and camp comedy already established as the show's trademark.
Yet season three also marked the first year of what might be called Hercules Visiting Hell on Earth. That is, he falls in love.
The three-episode arc featuring the real-life Mrs. Kevin Sorbo as love interest Serena formed a poignant story, especially compared to the generally light nature of Hercules to that point. It was dark enough that a guest appearance of Hercules' brooding (and by then more widely-watched) female counterpart, Xena, seemed appropriate for the story's final act, Judgement Day. The Serena character returned later in the season (played by a different actress) in a fourth episode, End of the Beginning, designed to put Hercules' heart through a meat grinder again, and showcase Bruce Campbell in a brief tribute to the latter's Goody Two Shoes dance from the Army of Darkness movie.
Character development is good, right? Not always -- In its first two seasons after the TV movies, Hercules was always closer to comedy than serious drama, and for most successful comedies, personalities might not change for an entire series. Has Homer Simpson evolved one iota since 1989? But Hercules in season three became heavier, closer in tone to its more successful spinoff, Xena. By year four they were killing Mama Hercules so that Our Hero could spend his fifth and final season moping around and tearing apart other mythological characters.
That's not a bad thing, mind you. Psychologically torturing Hercules was much more effective than doing it to Xena because Hercules was established as a good, decent guy, as opposed to a reformed evil warrior princess. You can feel sympathy, or at least pity, for Hercules.
Other notable episodes include Surprise, with Xena's archenemy Callisto showing up to mess with Hercules, and Les Contemptibles, a clip show set in 18th century France that gave Kevin Sorbo and Co. an excuse to ham it up with intentionally horrid French accents.
Score: 7 out of 10.
The Video
Much like the Xena season two and three DVDs, this set is probably as good as the show is ever going to look on DVD. You'll see the occasional aliasing and a rare artifact or two, but for the most part, lines and details are crisp.
Colors are vivid with little or no blooming or diffusion. Those unfamiliar with the show might wonder why everyone's skin color seems muted, but that's the way they really looked in the original print. Kevin Sorbo and Michael Hurst apparently tan very well, and all the bad guys tend to be smeared with dirt, covered with beard growth or both.
As you would expect for a TV show, the video is in 4x3.
Score: 8 out of 10
Audio and Languages
Unfortunately, this set continues the Davis/Panzer Productions habit of sacrificing on sounds, despite supposed 5.1 remastering. With so many action sequences, there ought to be plenty of surround material, but it's mostly front-loaded. During calmer scenes, you can hear some ambient sounds such as birds or footsteps emanating from the rear speakers. And conversations between characters are always clear and easily discernible.
At least fans of the music should be happy. The soundtrack has plenty of dynamic range and takes advantage of a full speaker system.
The audio on the commentaries also goes back to the poor quality of the Xena season two set. You might have to drastically raise the volume just to hear it -- make sure you lower it as soon as the interviews are over, or the music from the title menu will blow your ears out.
Subtitles would help viewers watch the show while the commentaries are running. Sadly, these DVDs, like other TV compilations from Davis/Panzer, lack subtitles or other language options.
Score: 6 out of 10
Packaging and Extras
Maybe the audio was crowded out by the voluminous extras, which alone make this set worth buying. There are cast and/or crew interviews for every episode, and each disc has one episode with an additional "commentary" from an actor, writer or producer.
The set offers audio and video versions of the commentaries. Evidently, many of the Herc and Xena interviews were filmed in one shoot for the crew, since many of them share the hideous, splotched drop cloth backdrop seen in many interviews from prior seasons. Looks like this set's interviews were filmed before those from the already-released Xena season three set, since the latter's commentaries often take place in more natural settings, or at least real rooms.
A CD-ROM comes with the package, with episode summaries; biographies of actors, directors and writers; brief explanations of mythological characters; and a trivia game. Much of it won't be new to the fans most likely to buy this set, and it lacks some of the extras found on similar DVD sets, such as images of the original scripts.
Season three comes in a fold-out box with Amaray holders for each of the eight DVDs and a slip cover for the CD-ROM. It would have been nice to have another wide screenshot spread across both inside covers, but it's nothing worth quibbling over.
Score: 9 out of 10